Millage renewal passes overwhelmingly

Trinity Carey

Journal Staff Writer

tcarey@miningjournal.net

The Marquette County Medical Care Facility, located at 200 Saginaw St. in Ishpeming, is pictured. The county voted in support of renewing the millage for the MCMCF during Tuesday’s election by a wide margin. (Journal photo by Trinity Carey)

MARQUETTE — A millage renewal for the Marquette County Medical Care Facility passed with 83.2% of the ballots cast in favor of it during Tuesday’s primary election.

Marquette County voters OK’d the renewal with 5,266 for and 1,063 against.

The .55 mills, or 55 cents per $1,000 of state taxable value on real and personal property, will be imposed from 2020-2024 inclusively. Money collected from the millage is placed into a millage reserve fund to support the county’s current and future obligations to the MCMCF.

The MCMCF is located in the Frank S. Valente building, at 200 W. Saginaw St., in Ishpeming and is an assisted living facility that provides medical care, dementia care and rehabilitation services to residents of the county.

Marquette County Board of Commissioners Chairman Gerald Corkin said he is happy to have the community’s support of the MCMCF and noted the importance of caring for the elderly.

“The people of Marquette County own it and they strongly support it,” Corkin said. “It gets a five-star rating for quality of care. They have an Alzheimer’s wing that helps to treat these individuals in the county and they have a new rehab facility for short- and long-term patients, so it’s a really positive asset to Marquette County.”

First levied in 1995, the millage also funds the day-to-day operations of the facility and its Maintenance of Effort, which allows the MCMCF to capture federal funds through the state of Michigan.

Currently, roughly $3.83 million rests in the reserve, according to Marquette County Administrator Scott Erbisch.

“It’s very important to be able to provide the quality of care that they provide,” Corkin said. “In order to qualify for federal funds, they need to have a Maintenance of Effort that goes to the state each year, so this helps them to receive additional funding from the federal government to run the facility.”

MCMCF Administrator Jerry Hubbard said he is grateful to have the support of the community, allowing his facility to continue to provide quality care.

“It’s pretty overwhelming to have support like that. It’s wonderful,” Hubbard said. “It means we can continue to operate and provide our much-needed services to the residents of Marquette.”

Trinity Carey can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 206. Her email address is tcarey@miningjournal.net.